Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1/Wild Card Warriors
'''Wild Card Warriors was a side competition held during Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1. It consisted of a series of one-on-one battles between new robots which had not fought in the main competition before, and a selection of experienced veterans from previous series. The newcomers would fight to prove their capabilities against their seasoned opponents, and to win themselves a place in the Robot Wars'' family.' However, of the six newcomers to take part, only one won a Wild Card Warrior battle, although its victory was not televised. The idea of the Wild Card Warriors competition may have influenced the similarly-themed ''Extreme'' 2 New Blood Championship. Competing Robots Veterans Newcomers Untelevised Matches Stinger vs Ajjay The fight began with both robots largely dodging each other. Ajjay made the first attack, ramming into Stinger whilst avoiding its bludgeoning spike, but its spinning weapon didn't appear to be working. Stinger missed several hits with its spike, and Ajjay continued to ram it, eventually hitting it into the pit release button. Stinger drove away, and Ajjay attempted to ram it again, but made no meaningful attacks, whilst Stinger merely continued to slam its mace on the arena floor. The constant dodging continued, with Ajjay seemingly unable to control itself properly. This became evident when, under no pressure, it drove straight into Sir Killalot's CPZ, who picked it up in his claws. Killalot eventually dropped Ajjay, who then drove onto the flame pit. Ajjay then drove at Stinger, who at last started landing meaningful attacks with its spike. The two robots then continued to drive at each other. A few more less meaningful attacks occurred to both robots, and suddenly Stinger reversed towards Sir Killalot, who grabbed hold of it by its axle. He then proceeded to carry it towards the arena wall; cease was called, but Killalot dropped Stinger out anyway. The judges were called to make a decision. Winner: '''Stinger Behemoth vs The Spider The battle begun with both robots dodging around each other. After three of these, they both drove front on at each other, and Behemoth flipped The Spider over, driving it straight into the arena wall. Upon contact, Spider's spinning blades made matters worse for itself by pulling it up the wall. Behemoth charged at the stuck Spider, knocking it onto its side. It then made another charge and lifted it over the arena wall altogether. This was the first time a non-flipper weapon had thrown another robot out of the arena. Winner: Behemoth King B Powerworks vs Draven King B Powerworks got off to the faster start, but the first few moments of the battle had the two simply driving around one another. Eventually, Draven managed to catch King B within its jaw, but wasn't able to close it in time and instead pushed it around the arena. King B when attempted to use its saw on Draven, but it did not appear to be working. Draven took the advantage and pushed King B into the CPZ, but the more experienced machine escaped. With its saw out of action, King B attempted to use its lifting spikes to ram Draven's side, but no damage was caused. Draven eventually managed to catch King B Powerworks again, but the jaw was too slow to catch its faster adversary. King B then attempted to use its saw on Draven again, which seemed to flicker back to life momentarily before stopping again. With this failing, it attempted to use its spikes again and this time it was able to get underneath Draven and hook itself between its wheels. Draven attempted to escape by raising its lifting mechanism, but this only caused part of its armour to break off. Unable to escape, King B took the immediate advantage and, in a decidedly Panic Attack-equse move, activated the pit and pushed Draven straight in. Winner: King B Powerworks Dominator 2 vs The Executioner As soon as the battle began, The Executioner drove away from Dominator 2 and attempted to press the pit release button, but missed. It attempted a second time, with the same result. A third attempt finally managed to open the pit as Dominator tried to push underneath it. It missed an axe blow and The Executioner drove away, but as Dominator gave chase, the newcomer suddenly turned around and drove straight into the descending pit. At about 16–18 seconds, it proved to be the quickest battle in either series of Robot Wars Extreme. Winner: Dominator 2 Panic Attack vs Axe-Awe Despite both robots low speed of 8 mph, the battle started quickly. Axe-Awe spun around, revealing its rear to Panic Attack, but the former champion did not capitalize. The two eventually charged at each other front on, but clashed slightly to the side, resulting in Axe-Awe missing an attack with the axe. Axe-Awe then tried to use its flipper, but missed and Panic Attack reversed away. Axe-Awe tried another attack with its flipper, and managed to lift up one of Panic Attack's skirts. Panic Attack came back strongly by lifting up Axe-Awe from the side, meaning it was unable to use its axe properly. Panic Attack then rolled Axe-Awe over, but the Wild Card quickly righted itself using its axe. It spun again, exposing its back to Panic Attack, and this time the veteran took advantage, ramming it into the side wall and lifting it up onto its top, keeping Axe-Awe's wheels off its body using its lifting forks. Axe-Awe was powerless to do anything as Panic Attack pulled off its signature move, carrying its opponent towards the pit release, then dropping it into the pit. After the battle had finished, it was briefly shown that Panic Attack had tried to attack Shunt again. Winner: Panic Attack Hypno-Disc vs TX-108 Hypno-Disc started the battle strongly, cutting into TX-108's armour. However, after only 20 seconds, the former runner-up suddenly broke down. Refbot counted it out, leaving TX-108 as the winner, and the only Wild Card warrior to beat one of the veterans. The Hypno-Disc team, unsatisfied with the result, requested a rematch. Team Terrafonics were unable to comply, however, so the pre- and post-match interviews went ahead based upon the fight. However, the producers were also unsatisfied with the battle and it was not aired on television. To this day, no images or footage of the battle has been found. Winner: TX-108 Trivia *Dominator 2's victory over The Executioner is ranked within the Shortest Battles in UK Robot Wars. It is the quickest battle from both series of Extreme. *TX-108 was the only newcomer to win a battle, defeating Hypno-Disc via the veteran breaking down. However, the fight was never televised, possibly due to its short length and presumed lack of exciting content. *Of the six newcomers, only Axe-Awe, Draven and The Executioner would appear in the UK Series following their Wild Card Warriors battles, with TX-108 failing to qualify and Ajjay and The Spider presumably failing as well. However, neither The Spider and Axe-Awe were true newcomers; their teams had fought in previous UK Championships with different machines, Team Tarantula with Robocow and Team Iron-Awe with Iron-Awe respectively. **If teams are considered, Craig and Chris Danby would also enter the UK Series later on, albeit with the unrelated robots Foxic and Apex. *This event marked Behemoth's first out of the arena flip, and the first occasion of a robot throwing another out of the arena without a flipping weapon. **It also marked the first occasion of a House Robot throwing a competitor out of the arena, with Sir Killalot dropping Stinger over the wall at the end of its battle against Aijay. However, as cease had already been called by that stage, Stinger still won the resulting Judges' decision. *King B Powerworks' battle against Draven is the only battle in Robot Wars history to be extensively edited after its original airing (on BBC Choice). Draven had originally competed under the name "Anthrax", but after an anthrax scare occurred at around the time its fight aired on BBC Two, the name had to be changed for this and all subsequent airings. As a result, all on-screen references to the Anthrax name - including statistics/battleboards and dialogue from Craig Charles and Julia Reed - were removed, and Jonathan Pearce's commentary for the entire fight was re-recorded. *Pussycat was originally intended to fight Draven, but after it could not compete due to weapon restrictions, King B Powerworks was chosen to fight in its place. References Category:Robot Wars Extreme 1 Category:Extreme 1 Episode 2 Category:Extreme 1 Episode 4 Category:Extreme 1 Episode 5 Category:Extreme 1 Episode 11 Category:Extreme 1 Episode 13 Category:Lost Robot Wars media